I never thought I would see devastation like this in my hometown. The Northwest Florida Gulf Coast has survived many hurricanes and has bounced back. Hurricanes are natural and are nature recovers, but this oil leak is not natural and it promises to foul these sugar-white sands for years to come. Even if BP capped the leaks today, there is enough oil out there to wash up on the shores for years to come. You can't put toothpaste back in the tube. The deed is done.

Scroll down to my previous post. I took those beach photos two weeks ago because I knew the tar-ball juggernaut was on its way and they would never look unspoiled like this again.. Well it is there now in all its shit-brown glory. I wanted to capture the pristine beaches before the onslaught of goo rendered the beaches closed. They are now.

I don't know who to blame. Offshore oil wells have been in the Gulf of Mexico for decades. They have survived hurricanes almost every year during that time and not a drop of crude was spilled. Oil wells might have "just blown up" in the 1930's, but you would think they would have it figured out by now. Somebody farked up badly.

I currently live in the third most oil producing country in the world. There are hundreds of offshore oil wells out here in the Arabian (Persian) Gulf and yet not a drop of goo has washed up on the talcum powder white beaches. The water is still a pleasing aqua. They have been pumping crude and transferring it to tanker ships since the 1960's without incident.

What happened in the Gulf of Mexico? Hard to say given the state of technology to prevent such things, Someone had their back turned, Government officials or BP guys wanting to save money. The blowout preventer didn't work. Fail safe....didn't.

For the conspiracy theorists out there, the explosion occurred a few days after President Obama signed a bill for more offshore drilling. Radical environmentalists, I wish I could put it past them but they have been caught doing crazy shit in the past, like spiking trees. I even read a theory that a North Korean submarine torpedoed the rig. Maybe the tree-huggers hired a North Korean submarine to blow-up the rig. Again, they just don't blow-up on their own.

I don't give a shit at this point. All I care about is that the beaches I hold near and dear to my heart are ruined for the foreseeable future. My only comfort is that my fellow locals are pissed-off and will mobilize to intercept any more sludge that threatens the sugar-white sands of the Emerald Coast.

Wish I was there to help! I can't even bear to watch the news anymore, much less the live "Leak Cam".

3 comments:

Not sure how this is going to come out, but some thoughts on the spill from an online comment.....

From the other side of the ocean, a comment on the issue,TC, TP and ME: http://www.mountainwings.com/past/10166.htm

I am a bit disappointed with your opening comments; although,I do agree with your final suggestions. A lot of blame is beingplaced on BP, and much of this is unfair.

I think at MountainWings you believe in fairness and justice?BP was indeed called British Petroleum but this was when it wasa BRITISH company. Some 10 years or so it joined with anAMERICAN company called AMOCO and changed its name to BP. Thiswas because around 40% of the ownership was American. Of theremaining shares, 40% are British and the remainder from othercountries including Russia. This means that BP is equally asmuch American as it is British.

I would also ask you to think on this. The oil rig was owned byan AMERICAN company who moved to Switzerland to avoid taxes.The company who ran the rig was a wholly owned AMERICANcompany. BP only owns the site, so why is it their fault?

If you consider that the AMERICAN companies involved in TorreyCanyon, Amoco Cadiz, Piper Alpha and Exxon Valdez did all theycould to avoid their responsibilities, is it fair to berate acompany that did not actually cause the problem yet is stillcommitted to clearing up at whatever expense that which wascaused in their name?

I am not even going to think in detail about how the Americanbosses behaved when thousands died at the American-ownedfacility in Bhopal! You might like to note that the AMERICANcompany Transocean has been in the Texan courts trying to limittheir liability. However, the Judge refused. BP has not tried tolimit their liability in any way.

I am not a fan of oil companies in general; but as a Christian,false witness is just not right, and the way people have behavedin your country is no less than that. Your president seems benton trying to destroy BP. Just what would that do?

If BP was to take Chapter 11 then it would be the people ofAmerica who pay for the cleanup. Are the dividends thatimportant? They are to the hundreds of thousands of pensionerswhose income comes from these shares held by their pensioncompanies.

Let me put it this way. You need a package delivered. You askXYZ deliveries to take it. XYZ hires a truck from 123 trucks.The truck is badly maintained and the driver is not veryexperienced. The truck hits a pot hole in the road and becauseit is not in good condition, a wheel falls off. The driver hitsthe gas rather than the brake, mounts the curb, hits a shop andspills all its parcels and diesel on the road. When the policeturn up, who do you think they will blame? From the way you aretreating BP it must be you, mustn't it?

There is no doubt this is a disaster but muck slinging is notthe way to solve it. Working together is.

So please look again at what is happening and bring theChristian compassion you profess to care about so much to whatis really happening. Because as the rhetoric bounces across theAtlantic, tempers are rising and you should be pouring water onthe flames instead of encouraging them to grow.

Subscribe Now: standard

About Me

I was born in the Southeastern U.S. and lived in a typical middle-class family. I found out at an early age that I craved excitement and doing things "outside the lines".
I was a party animal in High School and College and really enjoyed myself, I consider having fun a worthwhile life goal to this day.
I had a short career as a military officer right out of college because I didn't want to start sitting at a desk at such a young age.
What followed that was a series of boring technical jobs and marriage and settling down. Despite my urges for excitement and fun,I can be very responsible when I want to.
I was good with that for several years but the old urge for change became too strong so I got divorced early in 2008 (mutual agreement-no kids). Soon after that I received an offer to work in the Middle East(Abu Dhabi, UAE) I was there for almost 4 years and had many adventures which you can read about on my other blog Abu Dhabi Dispatches at http://expatuae.blogspot.com/
I am back in the US now and am living in Las Vegas. I always had a feeling I would end up here someday.